Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book VI/Hymn 52

52. For deliverance from unseen pests.

[Bhāgali.—mantroktabahudevatyam. ānuṣṭubham.]

Also found in Pāipp. xix. (in the verse-order 1, 3, 2). The first two verses are RV. i. 191. 9, 4. Used by Kāuç. (31-8) in a remedial rite against demons.

Translated: Griffith, i. 273.—See also Henry, Mém. Soc. Ling., ix. 241 top, and 239.

1. The sun goes up from the sky, burning down in front the demons; he, the Āditya, from the mountains, seen of all, slayer of the unseen.

All the mss. read -jū́rvat at end of b, but both editions make the nearly unavoidable emendation to -van, which the comm. also reads. The first half-verse in RV. is very different: úd apaptad asāú sū́ryaḥ purú víçvāni jū́rvan (should be víçvā nijū́rvan? ⌊rather, víçvāni nijū́rvan?⌋). Ppp. has vivāni jūrvan, and, for c, ādityaṣ parvatāṅ abhi. The "unseen" in d are, according to the comm., the demons and piçācas and the like. ⌊Whitney's M. reads -jū́rvan.⌋

2. The kine have sat down in the stall; the wild beasts have gone to rest (ni-viç); the waves of the streams, the unseen ones, have disappeared (ni-lip).

For c, RV. has ní ketávo jánānām, and again Ppp. agrees with it. The comm. takes alipsata as impf. of the desiderative of root labh (nitarāṁ labdhum āicchati)!

3. The life (ā́yus)-giving, inspired (vipaçcít), famous plant of Kaṇva, the all-healing one, have I brought; may it quench this man's unseen ones.

Ppp. begins a with āyurvidam, and c with aharṣam. SPP. has, in c, ā́ ’bhāriṣam, although it is both ungrammatical and unmetrical, because nearly all his authorities read so (the comm. gives -rṣam), as do part of ours (H.D.R.). ⌊As to Kanva's plant, cf. iv. 19. 2.⌋